


Running

by NYWCgirl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3568373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter and Neal are in hospital after an operation went wrong. They are both doped up on the good stuff, when Neal sees the bad guys in the hospital. He convinces Peter that they have to escape the hospital</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fill an anonymous prompt on collar corner. It also fills my ´head trauma´ square for the h/c bingo.  
> Originally published on LJ on September 15th 2014.

The last thing Peter remembered was the hopeless feeling of realizing that the car coming towards them was going to crash head on with them.

And then blissful nothingness…

 

He woke up because of distressed sounding voices. He wanted to reassure them but he couldn´t even open his eyes, let alone talk. He tried so hard but eventually he let go and slipped back in the blackness.

The next time, he fought himself to awareness; he heard a moaning to his left. He tried to turn his head to his left, but found it impossible. However, he managed to open his eyes, but couldn´t focus on anything. He tried blinking his eyes to clear his vision, but for some reason, he couldn´t focus. He felt spacey and off. He then slowly realized he was probably doped up with the good stuff.

He heard the moaning again, it sounded like someone was in pain, in real pain. Peter felt around with his right hand and felt something hard lying next to him, a nurse call button. He pressed all the buttons to make sure someone was coming to check on them.

"Mr. Burke, can you hear me?" a friendly voice asked.

Peter started, when had he closed his eyes again?

"Someone is in pain." is what Peter wanted to say, but all that came out was "Pain". And before he could try again, he felt warmth spreading through his arm, and everything went away.

 

When he opened his eyes this time, he realized he was clearer than all the other times that he had woken. He blinked and realized that he was in pain. His ribs hurt, and his left arm was weighed down. He looked at his arm and saw that it was in a cast. Looking at his arm had made him dizzy and Peter realized that his head hurt. What had happened? His mind was not coming up with an answer.

When he heard a soft mumbling to his left, he gingerly looked to the left. He was surprised to see that it was Neal who was laying in the bed next to him.

Neal was tossing and clearly distressed, a low keening sound escaping his throat. Peter took a good look and noticed that Neal had a bandage around his head and that his head was partly shaved. Several tubes were coming out and going in. It was only then that he realized he had IV´s as well.

Neal made the distressed keening sound again and Peter pressed the nurse call button again.

 

"Glad to see you awake, Mr. Burke. Are you in pain?"

"Yes." he croaked. Was this his voice?

"Here, let me feed you some ice chips."

When Peter felt the ice melt in his mouth, it felt like nectar from the Gods.

When the nurse heard Neal moan, she upped his pain medication and the moaning stopped almost immediately.

"How is he doing?" Peter wanted to know.

"He is pretty banged up. He has a nasty head wound, but they operated and he is doing OK. He has three broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but they were able to re-inflate it." the nurse explained. "We are a bit worried about his concussion, so we are monitoring him. Do you want anything for your own pain? You have a complicated fracture in your left arm. They also operated on it to set the bones, but it should heal up fine. You also have a mild concussion, some contusions and scrapes and bruises."

"No, I don´t need any pain medication, but thanks." Peter felt tired and the nurse must have noticed, because she told him to get some rest.

 

*  *  *

 

Peter started awake, because Neal was leaning over him. He looked anxious, his eyes were completely dilated and there was almost no blue left. Peter also noticed that fine tremors were running through his body.

"Neal, what are you doing out of bed?"

Neal was staring at him with an intensity Peter had rarely seen.

"Neal, you are hurt, you need to stay in bed."

"Peter, you need to get up, Calment´s men are in the hospital." Neal whispered.

Peter´s heart rate increased. They had been investigating Gregory Calment, who was suspected of fraud, but when they looked into him, it turned out that his main business was human trafficking. Peter had brought Violent Crimes in the picture, but Calment had already targeted Neal and himself. They had taken precautions, by sending June and El on a trip upstate in one of Mozzie´s retreats. That was the day before the accident. Peter only now realized that was why El was not by his bedside when he woke up. He was really not on top of his game.

Had Hughes send a protection detail?, he didn´t know.

"You saw Calment´s men?" Peter whispered back.

"Yes, I saw Hamard, he was looking through the window of the door, he was in the corridor, I am sure." Neal sounded really spooked. And he had every right, Hamard was Calment´s executor.

"Are you sure?" Peter was still a bit skeptical. He couldn´t believe Calment would send his men into a hospital to finish them off. On the other hand, what better opportunity when they were both incapacitated in a hospital bed, an air bubble or injection in the IV, and there would be no witnesses left.

Peter started to get up and Neal staggered back. He was very unsteady on his feet, so Peter grabbed his arm and noticed that Neal was abnormally hot. Neal looked like he was going to keel over any minute. He let Neal lean against the wall and carefully opened the door to check if there was anybody in the corridor. There was nobody and Peter also noticed that there was a protection detail detached, as there was a chair next to the door, but there was nobody around.

When Peter looked at Neal, he could see that Neal was on edge.

"You see." Neal whispered. "They already got to the agent posted at the door. They are coming."

Peter could see Neal´s pulse in his neck, it was hammering.

"Neal, you need to calm down, get a grip, we will get out of here. We will find a telephone and call the office."

"OK, I trust you Peter." Neal mumbled.

Peter looked wearily at Neal, he had to be careful, not to stress Neal too much with his concussion and injuries.

"Are you feeling OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, I am fine, let´s go." Neal whispered urgently.

Peter quietly opened the door and stepped outside the room. He felt Neal creeping behind him like a shadow. Neal was breathing too quickly and Peter was worried that he would pass out any minute, but to his amazement, Neal stayed upright.

They hurried through the corridor to the nurses station and Peter picked up the phone, but someone was coming towards them and by the sound of the steps, it was not medical staff. Peter grabbed Neal, who was staggering behind Peter.

He dragged Neal into a room and they ducted behind the bed. The footsteps had followed them and stopped before the door. Peter and Neal held their breath when the door slowly opened, but Peter heard a voice and whomever was about to enter the room, let go off the doorknob and left.

Neal silently grabbed Peter´s arm which made Peter look at him. Neal even looked worse than he did five minutes ago.

"How are you holding up?" Peter asked quietly, looking directly at Neal. Neal was breathing more labored and he was so pale, he almost looked grey.

"I am fine, we need to get out of here." Neal speech was getting slurred.

"We can get out of the hospital and go home." Neal softly muttered.

"How can we leave the hospital unnoticed?"

"We take the service entrance, but we need a change of clothes." Neal almost soundlessly whispered.

"I saw a supply room, let´s go." Peter took Neal by the arm.

They quietly shuffled to the supply room as Neal was getting more unsteady by the minute. Peter found them some scrubs and he helped Neal change. Luck was on their side, because there was also a wheelchair tucked away in the room. Peter quickly readied it and gently lowered Neal into it. Neal let out a relieved sigh. He was hanging his head like it was too heavy to hold up.

They quickly made it to the parking lot and Neal wanted to hotwire a car but Peter withheld him, trying to hail a cab. But none stopped and Neal seemed to be fading fast.

Peter had some basic training in car theft at the academy and he looked for an older model with less electronic features. Within a couple of minutes he had the car open and ready to drive away.

He gently placed Neal in the passenger´s seat and drove off. Where were they going? There wouldn´t be anybody at the office at this time of night. Home was not an option, because if Calment´s men came into the hospital to finish them off, they would probably also stalk their homes.

Hughes… Yes, he could trust Reese, so he started to drive towards his home. Neal was slumped in the seat, his head against the window. Peter could only hope that Neal had fallen asleep instead of unconscious.

When he arrived in the neighborhood Hughes lived in, he had trouble finding the right street, but he finally managed. He double parked the car, hit the emergency lights and shook Neal.

"Neal, we´re here, wake up." Peter demanded.

Neal didn´t wake and Peter felt something wet and sticky, he turned on the interior light and only now noticed the drain taped to his side. Why hadn´t he seen it when they changed in the scrubs, damn concussion. The bag was filled to maximum capacity with blood and gore and was starting to overflow.

He had to do something, but his mind was blank, so he hit the horn. Within seconds, the lights in Hughes´ house went on. And suddenly, the door on the driver´s side was pulled open. Peter didn´t really notice as he was trying to stop the bleeding, not realizing in his state that it wasn´t a bleeding but the drain that was overflowing and he wouldn´t be able to do anything about it. Neal needed medical assistance from a professional.

Finally the door on Neal´s side was pulled open and an unfamiliar face came in Peter´s line of vision.

"Hi Peter, you can let go of Neal. I´ve got him." the paramedic said with a confident voice.

As soon as Peter let go of Neal, he felt lightheaded and his vision was greying out. Opening his eyes, revealed a worried looking Hughes. Peter also saw that they had placed him in an ambulance.

"What happened?" Peter croaked.

"You tell me, Peter." Hughes gently squeezed his shoulder.

"The last I know, you two were admitted to hospital after the car crash with Calment." Hughes simple stated.

"We needed to leave the hospital as Calment´s men were in the hospital. I guess Calment wanted all loose ends tied."

"Calment? Peter, which of Calment´s men did you see?"

"I didn´t see them, but Caffrey saw Hamard peeking into our room."

"Peter, Hamard and Calment were killed in the accident you two were injured in. They were pronounced on scene, they can´t have been in the hospital."

Peter looked skeptical at Hughes. "And what about our protection detail gone and the empty nurse station?"

"With Calment and Hamard death, I didn´t feel it was necessary to provide a guard. And it was night Peter, there is only a skeleton crew working the graveyard shift…"

It all sounded so plausible, but Neal had also sounded so convincing at the time.

"Can you please check the security cameras in the hospital?" Peter asked.

"Off course, I´ll ask Jones to do it."

Peter started thinking, Neal´s haunted, too dilated eyes, the tremors, he had a serious concussion. Could he have been delusional at the time? And had he only helped this delusion?

"How is Caffrey? Peter asked Hughes.

"Not so good, he tore his stitches, his lung doesn´t fully expand and he has some internal bleedings. We will hear more at the hospital. They already took him back to Lennox."

Peter lay back and dozed while they drove back to the hospital. Once there, Peter was re-admitted and the nurses were glad they had their patients back. Their duty nurse had been petrified when she noticed the two men missing, IV´s and monitoring equipment disconnected. She had been away from the nurses station as there had been an emergency in another room. She had searched for them and had found a small blood trail leading from the supply room to the exit. She had then made the necessary calls to report the missing patients.

 

Neal had been bleeding in hospital, which was why Neal had looked like death warmed over. How could he have been so stupid? Peter thought, he should have known better.

The nurse explained that the drugs they gave Neal can cause hallucinations and in combination with the concussion and stress from the accident…

"Can you tell me where Neal is?" Peter asked the nurse.

"Once, he is out of surgery, he will be placed in an ICU-bed to be monitored more closely this time, we don´t want a repetition of that small stunt of yours. But I will let you know when you can visit him. Now get some rest yourself." the nurse smiled gently, while pushing a sedative.

"I am not really tired." Peter wanted to say, but his eyes were already closing by their own accord. The last thing Peter saw before he fell into a sedated sleep was the pin the nurse was wearing.

_We can´t cure stupid, but we can sedate it._


End file.
